As part of Italian Design Week, and in collaboration with the Italian Consulate in Cape Town and the Italian Cultural Institute in Pretoria, Italian designer Matteo Cibic, who is visiting South Africa as Ambassador for Italian Design 2025, presented a 'transmedia installation', the work 'Circular Trees', which explores 'Contemporary Alchemy', a technological innovation process that recovers precious metals from electronic waste.
This project represents a bridge between Italy and South Africa through the synergy of companies operating in both countries in the fields of sustainability and innovation. In cooperation with Holding LEM Industries Spa, which brings together several leading Italian companies in the high-fashion and luxury accessories processing sector, and its subsidiary Cape Refining in South Africa, a dialogue has been initiated between the two countries to carry out circular economy projects on site, similar to what is happening in Italy, where precious metals and critical raw materials will be recovered from electronic waste in the new hydrometallurgical plant of Valdarno Ambiente (Iren Group), recently opened in Tuscany.
The 'Circular Trees' represent a transformative potential of this process in the dimension of sculptures created with recovered gold and palladium, depicting trees with trunks and branches made of electronic chips, from which surprising life-giving elements grow and sprout. The project is also designed to bring socio-economic benefits to local communities in South Africa, as new jobs will be created and living conditions improved in the affected areas.
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